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Instant City by Steve Inskeep is pretty good, as is Karachi Vice by Samira Shackle (less historical though)

First of all, lots of people are challenging it — but if Muslim advocacy organizations and their political allies had successfully created a widespread narrative that Abbott was Islamophobic and this should disqualify him from governing then yes she’d ask about it

These are not entirely distinct things, because it’s less Mamdani’s media savvy that I’m talking about than his political savvy. Openly supporting Hamas and working for Iranian state TV is a stupid way to advance your agenda if you’re interested in wielding power in the UK/US

Yes but that’s a function of a whole political ecosystem it’s not Kristen Welker sitting down with her question list and thinking, “How can I imply to people that Mamdani is antisemitic?”

Mamdani is fairly good at not getting pinned down on stuff he doesn’t want to be, but I’d like to hear more details on how he thinks about Jewish advocacy organizations, Zionism, Zionists, Jessica Tisch’s support for Israel, Within Our Lifetime’s influence on pro-Palestinian activism, etc.

That’s actually why I wish reporters were asking more interesting variations of the question, because “are you antisemitic?” paradoxically does serve to suggest to the the audience that he’s antisemitic while simultaneously allowing him to defuse that suggestion and I’m not sure we learn anything

And my sense is that while I’m sure Mamdani has personal thoughts about the way antisemitism allegations have been leveled against him, I also think he’s delighted to be repeatedly offered a platform to present what looks like gracious reassurance to Jews

I don’t think it’s right to say that every reporter is asking Mamdani about antisemitism to force the impression he is antisemitic. Most are asking because you’re taught to ask “hard” questions, and this falls in that bucket (though I wish they’d ask more interesting variations)

And in certain contexts the antisemitism allegations toward Mamdani are a smear campaign, but in others — and sometimes all at once! — they’re also the expression of genuine fear and anxiety from his constituents, as they were with Corbyn

His record suggests that Corbyn probably did harbor more animus toward Jews than Mamdani, but I think he also thought he was too clever to just be gracious — he recognized it as a smear campaign and wanted to defeat the line of questioning rather than take the questions at face value

"On a silver platter, Judge Brown hands Soros a victory at the expense of the People of Texas and the Rule of Law."